Abstract
Although Thailand had been strongly influenced by India, and it is sandwiched between China and the Malay Archipelago, its culture is sufficiently robust to produce a distinctive character in the use of medicinal orchids. It is not based on Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine or Malay herbal medicine. Of the 42 species employed, only 13 are used outside Thailand. Ten species are employed as tonics, six for liver dysfunction and the rest for various conditions.
In Myanmar too, nine orchid species are used as tonics; Dendrobium nobile is an aphrodisiac; and eating tubers of a Geodorum species promotes longevity. Current database lists 800 species in 150 genera as Burmese. Only 32 orchids in 14 genera are known to have medicinal usage. Scientists have recently begun work on a new flora of Myanmar, and hopefully more ethnobotanical data concerning orchids will become available.
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Teoh, E.S. (2019). Medicinal Orchids of Thailand and Myanmar. In: Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_14
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